By Geraldine Carroll, ASCO Publishing

ASCO has launched JCO Oncology Advances (JCO OA), an open-access, online-only, interdisciplinary journal that will carve out a new and distinct space on innovations in global clinical and translational cancer research, and reach a diverse audience of academics, community practitioners, international colleagues, and patient partners.

“The JCO family of journals are leaders in oncology research and clinical care, and I’m honored to be part of a new ASCO journal,” said Pamela Kunz, MD, editor-in-chief of JCO OA, associate professor, and director of the Center for GI Cancers and chief of the Division of GI Medical Oncology at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital.

“One of the key priorities of this journal that will set it apart from others is its accessibility,” Dr. Kunz said. “Given the open access nature of this journal, we have an obligation to make it accessible to an even wider audience that includes our global community, our community oncologists, our patients and patient advocates, looking at the science of oncology through a slightly different lens than in the past.” She added that inclusion and diversity of the associate editors, editorial board, and authors are among her top priorities and a great way to think about merging science with accessibility.

The first JCO OA papers will be online in the summer and will complement the high-impact, selective, and well-respected JCO flagship publication by featuring provocative and innovative earlier-phase clinical trials and smaller studies on the new journal’s platform that would perhaps not find a home in JCO. “This matters because those articles are often written by junior faculty and it’s another way of bringing those authors into the community,” Dr. Kunz said.

JCO OA will implement a seamless cascade model for authors so that if their paper is not accepted at JCO, they will have the option to automatically transfer their paper to JCO OA.

New Article Types to Increase Accessibility

New article types will be introduced which do not exist in the other ASCO journals: “Brief Reports,” which are shorter scientific reports, and “Plain Language Summaries,” reflecting JCO OA’s goal of making cancer science available to the broader oncology community.

“We hope to have some visual abstracts and visual assets that engage our patient community, and I think this will be a fantastic way to also reach the lay public by communicating the science of oncology in a different way,” Dr. Kunz said.

The journal will follow a continuous publication model and will not feature themed issues to ensure there is content that appeals to all readers. JCO OA associate editor Maryam Lustberg, MD, MPH, director of the Center for Breast Cancer at Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center, anticipates that the journal’s topics of interest in all aspects of the rapidly changing field of oncology will serve readers well and present new opportunities for authors. “It’s an exciting opportunity to have one’s research published within the JCO family of journals and especially having open-access dissemination across a global audience,” Dr. Lustberg said.

Authors are encouraged to submit manuscripts which reflect key, emerging science as well as issues they’re facing as oncology professionals. Dr. Kunz said there will be discounts available for select article processing charge (APC) options.

Aparna Parikh, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard University and a GI medical oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, felt inspired by the open-access model and became one of the journal’s first associate editors. “One of the key aspects that drew me to the role was not only the impact to shape the direction of the journal but the importance of open access,” she said. “As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about equity in low- and middle-income countries, minimizing barriers to knowledge-sharing is important.” And, Dr. Parikh said, it is also an opportunity to amplify important research that comes out of LMICs.